I'm Sorry
by KurosakiLuva12
Summary: Ace needs her more than anything else


What is death? Is it the darkness that surrounds everyone from their birth, slowly suffocating them with the reality of their short, disaster filled existence until they can stand it no longer? Or is it something merely physical, when the light fades from someone's eyes and the slow rise and fall of their ribcage finally ceases?

It's inevitable really; everyone will and must go at some point even though it's hard to accept or even understand why. It'll happen to everyone eventually so why should it matter anymore as he watched the scarlet droplets of blood trailing down her cheeks, framing her delicate pale face, his stomach feeling as though it had been twisted in a knot at the sickening scent of fresh blood. Why? Why does it feel as though someone's pierced him through the heart with a splintered stake? Why does he feel these tears welling up in the corner of his eyes, threatening to overflow at the sight of her mangled body at the foot of his bed?

The silence is almost too much bear, the only noise coming from her limp body as her breathing becomes sharper and more ragged.

"Ace" Her whisper is barely audible but to him it sounded as though she were screaming. "I'm so sorry; it looks like I'll never be able to be of any use to you."

With a huge force of will, he forced himself to look into her eyes. The once beautiful, sky blue eyes that had always in the past shone with such energy and liveliness. The very same eyes that, despite all of the other amiable young men after her, had instead looked at him fondly, sometimes even lustfully, her burning love showing in her expressions. She had practically handed her heart over to him on a silver platter. And what had he done with that heart, oh so willingly given to him? Used it. That's what. Toyed with her affections, made her believe he felt the same way, then suddenly ignoring her completely and flirting with other women right in front of her. She'd never minded though. It had upset her, he knew, when he'd chat with random girls he saw in the street and offered to keep them warm at night, but she had never complained or told him to stop, she'd just accepted it, feeling that she wasn't worth all his attention and should be grateful he condescended enough to speak to her at all.

That's how she felt. He thought he felt the same way too and would often ask himself why he talked to her so much when, although she was very pretty and had a nice figure, there were much sexier women around, who would be only too willing to jump into bed with him. Or why he'd suddenly feel the need to show off in front of her, or (though he'd never admit it, not even to himself) why he looked forward to coming home, even though it meant facing his crazily strong, eccentric, marine grandfather, all just to see her again.

It took him a long time to realise he was falling for her, and the worst part was, he could do absolutely nothing to stop it. He'd tried, god he'd tried, but no matter what he did she kept loving him and he could do nothing but love her back though he tried his best not to show it. He even stopped so much as _looking_ at other girls because they just weren't as interesting or as beautiful as her. In fact, to him it seemed she kept getting more beautiful as the days went by and it didn't take a genius to figure out he was head over heels for her. Even his clueless little brother, Luffy, asked him if his new sister could cook as well as Makino.

But that was all before it happened.

Because Ace was a pirate (As was his brother) he was usually out at sea for a couple of months at a time and only came home for a while. His grandpa was also out most of the time, visiting different marine bases, leaving the island completely defenceless at times to thugs and pirates should they ever decide to "visit" the island.

Which happened to be exactly why he found himself standing over her bloody body, trying to stem the flow of tears cascading down his freckled face, fist clenching in anger and the need to hit something. Damn them, those stupid bandits, damn them all to hell. How dare they decide to attack the town, killing all in sight? How dare they think that they could kill Maya, _his_ Maya? Not that they'd care much now; he'd already made sure of that.

Shaking himself slightly, he kneeled down and carefully lifted her body up off the floor and slowly walked out the room and carried on walking until he reached the cliff top. This had always been her favourite place, where she'd watch the sunrise and the sunset, occasionally bringing Ace along with her. Now he was standing in her favourite place he felt more tears flowing down his face as the realisation of her death became all the more real as he stood there, alone.

"I love you Maya" He whispered down to her lifeless body as he took a step closer to the cliff edge and looked down at the waves far below. "I love you so much I don't think I can live without you. I know that you wouldn't want me to do this but at least now we can be together forever on the other side" Mentally sighing, he closed his eyes, with an image of her laughing face stuck firmly in his mind; he stepped over the cliff edge.


End file.
